The Modern Home
The Ideal Home Exhibition
EACII time I visit Olympia some new hall or annexe appears to have been added to its formidable acreage—or, at the very least, some trifling gallery a few hundred yards in length ; so that visitors unfamiliar with the general lay-out must have to make full use of map if not of compass to find their way about. Fortunately, so far as the current exhibition is con- cerned, the inventiveness of the designers has more than kept pace with their growing opportunities, and one is lured painlessly along what must be a walk of many miles.
I have never known the familiar outlines of the Grand Hall so completely transformed as this year, when the great buildings of Monopolis, the City of the Future, recede into the distance on canvases that must surely have been painted " with brushes of comets' hair." A great improvement in this hall is the presence of fewer and larger stands than usual— but, warned by past experience, I left inspection of their contents till later and made for the National Hall, where the Village of Ideal Homes was already beginning to grow queues at every door. The dominant structure here is the " Hush- Hush ! " House, an attempt to solve the noise problem with which most town-dwellers will sympathize, even though not all will approve the means adopted. These are nothing if not drastic ; for the entire front and sides of the house are windowless, presenting a rectangular expanse of brick relieved only by the front and garage doors. It is doubtful if a street of such edifices—and it is for streets that they are intended— would add to the beauty of any town ; but many of us would be prepared to argue them preferable to the smears of feature- , less and over-featured houses which make so many of our urban and suburban streets a nightmare. The advantage of the arrangement is that 4t- causes all rooms to thee the rear where comparative quiet may presumably be found ; the ; disadvantage, that it _restricts the supply, of sunlight to one- quarter of the compass and would, therefore,' be desirable only with a northerly aspect.
The " House that Jack Built " is a reply—and a forceful reply—to last year's " House that Jill Built." It is an embodi- ment of the winning design in a Daily Mail competition, open to married men only, for the most practical house to cost £1,500 exclusive of the site. Built of ferro-concrete, with great window-space and a three-story loggia in front, it is from outside easily the- most attractive building in the hall. The inside, too, possesses some noteworthy features. It is divided into three flats : the ground floor, with maid's bedroom, a " workshop," where cooking is done and meals eaten ; the first floor, a living flat entirely shut off from the kitchen with which communication is by loud-speaker tele- phone ; the top floor, reserved primarily for guests. When these are absent, the flat can be shut off by a door on the first floor, and so rendered comparatively dust-proof.
Central heating by wall-plates, a doorstep of marble for easy cleaning, chromium-plated tubes for banisters, a service-lift and tradesmen's delivery-hatch are other details which go to make up an admirable conception. Other buildings in this section include a pleasant all-timber house in red cedar, a Tudor cottage, a " Sunlit " house, a " Sun- Centre " house (Shades of Apollo, what a sun-loving people we are become !) and several more. What I chiefly missed was some note of inspiration in the interior decoration and furnishing. These houses are one of the most popular features of the exhibition. They possess that personal appeal which is lacking in the more formal stands and could become a potent factor in educating the taste of the public. Surely we can expect of some of them at least that they shall be abreast or even ahead of modern taste. But this is not what one finds. Too much pattern ; ill-considered, muddled colour schemes ; bad pictures and ornaments, and too many of them ; furniture obviously chosen " off the peg " at various furniture shops—there is a complete lack of any effort towards a coherent scheme. What are our modern designers doing ?
Things were rather better in the furniture section of the Grand Hall ; though here, too, I was conscious of the rarity of any furniture than could reasonably be called modern. The exhibit of Arundell Clarke, a dining-study and bedroom for a small flat, deserves honourable mention, though it would have been better displayed, I felt, in a rather less small flat. J. J. Adams & Sons, Ltd., also showed furniture of good design, some of which had been treated by a new colouring process. The treatment is not a stain, since the colour runs right through the wood, and is guaranteed not to fade. As any shade is available, the method should find wide application. There can be no lighting the remaining sections on this floor— heating, lighting and sanitation—with lack of modernity. It seems to me that it would be worth while for anyone intending to build or modernize a house to travel up to this exhibition and study the various appliances—even if it meant a journey from John o' Groats. Every method of Boat. or freezing or softening water, of heating and lighting treating a house can be examined and compared one another. Here, too, I found a new type of wall-treatin to add to my list of last week. Its name is " Decorene and it resembles rather thick American cloth (beloved of young modernists) ; but, unlike this, it is guaranteed not crack or peel. Since. it can be obtained with either gl or matt surface and in a wide range of. patterns and colon its uses for' such rooms as bathrooms, kitchens and nurse will be obvious to the most timid. It is thin enough to for curtains--in fact, my informant was dressed in it !–.) _ of sufficient tensile strength to bind cracked or failing p far more efficiently than the stoutest paper.
Up a broad staircase, past -a large display of Lalique g brought me to the Gallery of Gadgets, properly called Domestic Labour Saving Section. Here the usual array conglomerations and contrivances for lightening the innum able unseen tasks of running a house found rather more to than obtained in any other section. I was chiefly deligh by a small machine, which I prefer to call the " Un-Churn, for turning butter back into cream at a cost of ninepence a pin The last contrivance of this nature that I saw cost abo fourteen guineas—which I calculated would cut rather deepl into even my presupposed annual cream consumption. B this at three and a half guineas . . . and the cream - excellent !
Next, to the Pageant of Fashion, where " sixteen lovel mannequins, expertly chosen for their appearance, personalit and skill from among the most notable in London and Par salons "—and I can well believe it l—displayed clothing of sorts from an Ascot gown to a Cocktail Suit by such names Lanvin; Jane .Regny, Yteb, _Irene Dana, Martel and Amman names which may well convey more to my readers than the do to me. The whole thing, which was brilliantly produ with orchestral accompaniment and excellent lighting erred culminated in a bridal tableau when the bride, accompani by eight bridesmaids, some Mendelssohn and a peal of tato bells, processed slowly down the raised gangway and ba again. Gallant, indeed, the bridegroom who would ha showed his sombre figure on that stage ! The Pageant is h three times daily in a special theatre containing almost thousand excellently comfortable seats, and can therefore additionally recommended as a resting-place for the leg-w It is just possible that husbands might find it cheaper to their wives to the Lounge on the same floor or visit Movietone Theatre lower down.
The first floor of the Empire Hall is largely devoted tableaux. Of these the most interesting, at any rate to t town-dweller, is " Behind the First Floor Back," which sho in a series of seven scenes what can be done with the ugly lead roofs which so frequently project from the backs of to houses. It is only necessary to arrange for some means access, usually a question of putting in a French window, a these ingenious examples show how they may become an ou door bedroom, a cocktail lounge, a gymnasium, a nursery. pleasaunce--almost anything but a garage ! " Nurseries f all Purses " also show ingenuity, particularly the £100-a-Ye Income Nursery, which is completely furnished at a cost £1 ls. 9d. All the furniture for this has been made from so odds and ends as packing-cases and banana crates.
Compare the £400, £700 and Luxury Nurseries—and the N Income Nursery. But is this last quite up to modern standa of hygiene ? I have often wondered how a kangaroo des inside its pouch. The much-belaboured Victorian age ge yet another drubbing in this series (though I liked the look the Victorian " Nanny," and some of the toys belonged Queen Victoria herself), as also in " Dining Rooms Throu the Ages " which shows in eight tableaux the rise of t English dining room from the time of the Ancient Briton to t present day. I think most people will agree that the mode room looks far the pleasantest to feed in. The Living Pictu Zoo " displays various small beasts and fishes in cages tanks so framed as to resemble pictures. For my part I CO have heartily wished more space for some of them—espeeial the birds. The inimitable angel fish form a delightful rot of the sea, bottom in which figure a tiny wreck and t chest. A cage still awaiting its occupant greatly intrigued It was lined with bright green and red metal foil. Whom ee it be waiting for? Could it be . . . . a chameleon ? Rem bering the story of the tartan, I fear the worst.
And so to the Gardens, always an attractive corner. year they are less formal than usual, and none the worse it. As I gazed round, wondering whether this was spring summer, a wireless nightingale chugged to his ethereal n —and I gave up wondering.
G. M. BotairnaEY,
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